General (Ret) Scott Miller, UK Royal Marines, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and other U.S. Military Branches among speakers at TEM

Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”), a leader in mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) technology, held its first Wave Relay® Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) for the user community at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, in New York City, on October 2-3.

The meeting, held aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid, brought together several hundred Wave Relay® end-users and industry partners from over 20 countries to discuss the best practices in the deployment of tactical MANET networks in diverse operational environments, say company officials.

“The Technical Exchange Meeting—which will become an annual event—brought our users together to share their experiences and best practices for the benefit of the community as a whole,” said Dr. Herbert Rubens, CEO of Persistent Systems. “We collaborated with users from the U.S. Marine Corps, the UK Royal Marines, law enforcement, as well as our Wave Relay® Ecosystem Partners.”

GEN (Ret) Scott Miller, former JSOC Commander and final commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces–Afghanistan, delivered the keynote address. Discussing the Battle of Mogadishu and the importance of Extreme Trust, he noted, “My communicators…will tell you that I’m hard on them because I demand communications, because I know how important they are.”

Military, law enforcement, and industry speakers also shared Wave Relay® operational vignettes with the audience. Among the topics:

• WO1 Jack Cuthbert, from the UK the Royal Marines, discussed new and innovative (crewed and uncrewed) platforms and services that commando units added to their tactical MANET; and
• Billy Chanthavisouk, from Harris County Sheriff’s Office, in Houston, Texas, talked about how his agency and tactical response units leverage MANET for their bomb robots, aviation platforms, and SWAT high-risk warrants; and
• BR Mcdonald, Persistent’s SVP of Field Technical Services & Support, hosted a panel on communication in subterranean and challenging RF environments; and

“Hearing these real-life stories, critical lessons learned, will help others optimize their deployments of Wave Relay® technology to ensure they achieve the best performance possible in their operational environment,” Dr. Rubens said.

Members of the Wave Relay® Ecosystem, an industry alliance of unmanned system, sensor, camera, and software companies all using Persistent’s Wave Relay® MANET network both attended and exhibited their network-integrated products at the Technical Exchange Meeting. AeroVironment, ASEI, Boston Dynamics, CACI International, Hood Technology, Robotic Research (RRAI), Shield AI, Teledyne FLIR, and Tomahawk Robotics, were all present.

“Our Ecosystem Partners are critical members of our user community. We can’t deliver a networked battlefield without platform providers and sensor manufacturers working closely together with my team and the user community. The TEM helped us understand the challenges faced by the user community and how our industry partners can collaborate to solve them,” Dr. Rubens said.

“Most industry conferences are just marketing events,” one attendee said. “This event was different. I was able to move initiatives forward and improve operational capabilities by having the key players together in a collaborative environment. It was two long days, but definitely worth it.”

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company that develops and manufactures a patented and secure Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay®. Wave Relay® transmits and receives data, video, voice, and other applications under the most difficult conditions. Their suite of products is utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Robotics, and Unmanned Systems markets.